Animals
by CaptainMonochrome
Summary: Takes place after the Wolverine (X-men aspect based solely on the movies, not the comics!) Logan goes to Japan to find Yukio, who left after receiving a mysterious letter. After an encounter with a demon, however, he is drawn into the world of the True Cross Order and the Exorcist Cram School. Rated T for violence that may happen later.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_(This is based solely on the modern X-men movies, not the comics. This story takes place after the movie the Wolverine.)_

Logan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and blocked out all the roadside chatter and strange scents infringing on his senses. He needed to focus. To concentrate.

Releasing the breath, his eyes snapped open. Yanking clenched fists from his coat pockets, he raised them before his face and stared - just two simple things, really, but with them came such struggle and frustration. In one hand he held a map of True Cross town, in the other a Japanese-English phrasebook.

"Alright, let's do this," he growled.

Yukio had run off without telling him where she was going, saying she had some personal business to settle. "Personal business" was a phrase he knew only too well, and it never denoted any business-like activity. At first he had been relunctant to let the spunky redhead tag along, but now he felt himself missing her sarcasm and sassy attitude. Not to mention, she was pretty good in a fight.

He had managed to find the envelope that had sent Yukio into frantic, furtive packing. She had taken the letter, so Logan still had no clue why she had run, but at least he had an address. Unfortunately, he hadn't the faintest idea how to read Japanese.

He could either meticulously leaf through the maps searching for the same symbols written on the envelope, or he could ask for directions. He stood indecisively on the sidewalk, warring between his loner nature and impatience, unaware of pedestrians glancing warily in his direction as they veeered to the side to avoid his scowl.

Then suddenly, someone slammed into his back like a speeding train, sending he and his papers to the rain-soaked ground. Picking himself off the concrete and observing his ruined map laying in a puddle, his frustration flared.

"Watch it, bub!" he barked, spinning around to face the careless assailant. Instead, he was met with a gaping, fang-lined maw and slithering tongue.

"What the-" he stumbled back in surprise - before him stood some sort of monster. It looked like a giant green worm with shark teeth and spider legs. It chattered its razor-sharp fangs in Logan's face and flicked a rope-like tongue before scurrying off down the sidewalk.

Logan was frozen, staring at the beast; out of all the things he'd seen, this was definitely the strangest. But no one else seemed to notice it. He watched in tentative terror and wonder as the creature meandered past pedestrians, occasionally sniffing or even lightly licking their clothes or stealing meat buns from a vendor.

_Have I finally lost it?_

He stumbled forward, forgetting his bag on the sidewalk, pushing past people to keep the monster in sight. All his instincts were telling him to attack - he could feel his claws rippling beneath his skin, itching to break past his knuckles. However, he kept himself in check - if he started fighting now countless bystanders would get caught up in it. Besides, the creature wasn't doing anything, really.

As if it could hear his thoughts, the thing stopped. Snake-like tongue flickering hesitantly in the air, it slowly turned towards a woman standing at the corner chatting on her phone. The hair on his neck stood up straight and he broke into a run, shoving people aside as he shouted a warning.

"Hey! You! Watch out!"

He had several people's attention now, but the woman remained oblivious. And still no one seemed to see the monster, even as it crept closer to the woman and stretched his slavering jaws wide. Everyone just looked at him like he was crazy - maybe he was. But he couldn't just stand there and do nothing.

Abruptly, the tongue snapped out and wrapped around the woman like a python, rapidly darting back towards its mouth for a quick snack. She screamed, apparantly noticing the creature for the first time.

With a bellow, Logan leaped into the air and brought out his claws, slicing downwards and severing the monster tongue. A spray of crimson washed over Logan and the woman, who collapsed to the ground with another scream.

"You alright?" Logan queried, but she merely shrieked again. The creature was getting away, and a flock of frightened, concerned citizens were gathering around the woman. With a disgruntled shrug, Logan launched himself after the freakish animal.

Was it some sort of escaped experiment? A mutant? A demon from his long-overdue hell? All these speculations flashed through his mind as he raced after the creature, eliciting shrieks of fear and indignation from passerbys. Occaisonally the monster would scamper up walls or across rooftops, but Logan could always follow its trail - it stank to high heaven. But it was fast - eventually he lost sight of it. And then it vanished completely, the scent mingling with a medley of other strange, powerfully rancid smells. Clasping a hand over his nose, Logan scrunched his face up in disgust.

"Aw jeez. What is it with this city?"

A shrill scream, quickly joined by others, snagged his attention and he was once again running. He arrived on the scene just in time to see the monster's tail dart around the corner of a building. Several young people in uniforms rose from the ground and gathered dropped textbooks, wondering what had just happened. Luckily no one seemed injured - not yet, at least.

He ran sprinted towards the building, noticing some English words on a small sign beside the entry gates - True Cross Academy.

"Great. A school - this should be fun," he huffed, cracking his knuckles.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm stepping outside for a moment to take a call. Please finish reading the assigned pages," Yukio Okumura declared, eyeing his younger brother, who was using his book as an unfortunately drool-drenched pillow.

"Yes, Okumura-sensai," Bon, Konekomaru, and Shima answered dutifully before Yukio shut the door, sighing wearily. No matter how hard Yukio tried, it was impossible to turn Rin into a model student. Turning his mind away from that depressing thought, he instead focused on the problem at hand. Whenever Mephisto called, there was sure to be trouble.

"Yes? This is Okumura."

"A demon just infiltrated the school - we haven't pinned down its location yet; we just know it's fast, and it's on the move."

"What? How did a demon get in?"

"We don't know. Be on guard and contact us when you find it."

"Yes sir," Yukio nodded and snapped the phone shut, suddenly very wary of the long, dimly lit corridor in which he found himself. Standing still as a statue, he slowly scanned the hallway, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. After several moments of shallow breathing and heavy heartbeats, he slid his fingers away from his holster and turned back towards the classroom.

_There!_

He whirled around, gun instantly in hand as he advanced toward the sound of footsteps coming from somewhere within the shadows.

"You there! Stop!"

A hulking, bearded man had stepped into the light, nostrils flared in disgust as if smelling some terrible stench. At the sight of Yukio he chuckled a bit and shrugged his hands in the air.

"What are you? A glorified hall monitor?"

The man looked human - but so did Rin. Yukio tightened his grip and addressed the intruder in English.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The stranger was growing impatient, "Look, kid, I'm kind of busy here."

"I'm not letting you pass until you answer my questions."

"Whatever. Let's finish this conversation later," the man grunted, staring over Yukio's shoulder with a strange expression. He was about to glance behind him to see what had caught the stranger's attention when he suddenly noticed a metallic glint in the stranger's hand. At first he thought he was holding knives, but at second look he saw three long, silver claws had grown out of the stranger's fists, sharp and deadly as any sword.

Without hesitation, Yukio shot.

The man - or rather, the demon - grunted but hardly seemed perturbed - instead he pushed past Yukio and began sprinting down the hall - towards the cram school.

"Stop!" Yukio ordered, firing off three more shots. The demon jolted with each bullet but didn't slow down. Whipping out his phone, he smashed the redial button while keeping his revolver trained on the intruder.

"I've located the demon, it's at the cram school. I'm in pursuit, but it seems to be invulnerable to my bullets. Be careful, it looks like a human."

"Wonderful! We're on our way. Please hold him off as long as you can. And Okumura -don't let your brother get involved. I rather like my school in one piece."

"Yes sir," Yukio obliged. _Easier said than done_.

"Rin, wake up! This is an important lesson!" Rin blearily opened his eyes, lazily wiping a string of drool from his chin.

"Huh?"

Shiemi had her stern face on - but she was just too cute to be intimidating. Still, she slammed one delicate fist into her palm and fixed a green-eyed scowl on Rin.

"If you want to become an exorcist, you have to study hard, like Yuki-chan!"

Rin snorted, "They should just make us exorcists already. We know how to fight demons, isn't that enough?"

"Baka!"

Rin spun around on his stool to see Bon with his arms crossed and a familiar fury gleaming in his eyes, "Being an exorcist is way more than simply waving that thing around and hoping you hit something!" he nodded, indicating the sword on Rin's back.

Tail twitching, Rin jumped to his feet and prepared to deliver a stunningly clever retort when he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a gunshot, then three more. Everyone stared at the door in wide-eyed suspense.

"Yuki-chan!" Shiemi cried, jolting everyone into action.

"Come on!" Rin shouted, shrugging the Kurikara from its red silk case and charging towards the door, the rest of the class at his heels. As soon as his fingers brushed the doorknob, though, the wall seemed to explode. Splintered wood and debris burst forward like a popped balloon, throwing the students to the floor. He was still blinking sawdust out of his eyes when the demon revealed itself - some sort of terrible worm-like creature with razor sharp teeth. It crashed into the room and flailed on the floor for a moment before righting itself and scampering onto the teacher's desk, hissing and flicking its tongue in each of their directions.

"Is everyone okay?" Konekomaru called, clutching his cracked glasses to his face.

"No - I think I bruised my tail bone," Shima moaned.

"What is that thing?" Izumo demanded, looking on with disgust.

Bon clenched his fists, "A demon - that's all that matters. We need to take it out."

Rin would have grinned at the prospect of a good fight, but he couldn't help but be worried. Yukio should have been here by now. Still, he gripped his sheath and snarled, "Leave it to me!"

However, before he could draw his sword, someone else came leaping through the gaping hole in the wall. At first he thought it might be Yukio, but no - it was some burly guy with a beard and..claws? The growling, blood-spattered stranger caught them all off guard - especially when he waved his claws in their direction and shouted, "Get out of here! It's not safe!"

The demon shrieked and leaped towards the stranger, who roared and met it mid-air, digging his long, silver claws into its hide. They crashed to the ground, the demon's tongue snaking around the stranger's arm and chomping down on his arm. He slashed its jaw and left the mouth hanging open, unhinged. In the next moment he jabbed his fist into the roof of its mouth, driving his claws into its brain. The creature let out a moan, then disintegrated to dust.

Panting, glazed with sweat and blood, the stranger stood and stared back at them, brow furrowed in either anger or confusion. His claws retracted into his hands, and he raised a finger to point at all the students, who were still staring.

"Am I the only one who saw that?"


	3. Chapter 3

Before anyone could reply, Yukio burst into the room and raised his gun. Two reports rang out, and the stranger stumbled forward, dropping to his knees before falling prone on the floor.

"Yukio! What are you doing?" Rin demanded, flinching at the corpse lying before him. His younger brother calmly holstered his gun and pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Don't be fooled - this is a demon that infiltrated the school a short while ago. It merely appeared human."

"But we just watched him kill a demon!"

Now Yukio was confused, "What?"

Konekomaru gave a start as Shiemi knelt beside the prone figure, clutching Nii-chan in her hands.

"Moriyama-san, what are you doing? He might be dangerous!"

"Isn't he also..kind of...dead?" Shima chuckled nervously, edging away as if the man might suddenly come back to life and slash them all to bits. Shiemi sniffled a bit, but kept her shoulders straight.

"Even if he was a demon, he saved us from that monster. So that means he was nice...right? Shouldn't we try to save him?"

"It's no use - no one could survive two bullets to the skull like that," Bon grunted, but suddenly Nii-chan was squeaking and hopping up and down in Shiemi's hands.

"What is it, Nii-chan?"

"No way," Shima muttered, creeping further away. The gouging bite marks and other injuries had vanished, leaving behind smooth, unscarred skin. Everyone gasped and stepped back as the stranger sat up with a groan, scowling at the little green man floating in front of him.

"What the heck is that thing?"

"Nii!" the greenman squeaked before jumping onto Shiemi's head to hide. Shiemi clapped her hands in delight, "You're alive!"

"Yeah, whatever," the stranger grunted, scratching the back of his head as if he had been bitten by two mosquitoes rather than shot. Without the slightest quiver of his hands, Yukio rapidly reloaded and trained his gun on the stranger. Rin shoved the weapon away, "Calm down! He helped us, shouldn't we give him a chance?"

"He's a demon - you saw with your own eyes. Only a demon can heal like that," Yukio gave him a meaningful look, but Rin wasn't about to back down.

"He just killed the demon, I think he's on our side!"

Both of the brothers were so caught up arguing neither noticed when the man stood and began talking.

Logan didn't understand Japanese, but he followed the gist of the conversation. Four-eyes wanted him dead, and the kid with the tail didn't. He thought perhaps he could have a say in the matter.

"Look, I don't know what you're saying, but -"

"They think you're a demon," a quiet, sharp voice interrupted. He looked to his right to see a petite girl with purple hair glaring at him suspiciously, clutching two squares of paper in her white-knuckled fists.

"So are you?"

A demon? These people really were crazy. He began to rub his head, wondering how he had gotten caught up in all this. He just wanted to find Yukio and get out of here.

"A demon, huh? Sorry to disappoint - I'm just a human."

The kid with the piercings and streaked hair crossed his arms skeptically, "A human doesn't instantaneously heal from gunshot wounds - or have claws, for that matter."

"Oh, but they have tails? I'm a mutant, same as him."

He didn't understand why they were all so suspicious - it was like they had never heard of a mutant before. He knew they must have - if they hadn't seen it on the news, there was one standing right beside them! But the mutant kid simply gawked, eyes wide. With an annoyed sigh, Logan stood and began brushing debris off his coat.

"I only stuck around to find out what that thing was, but if you're not going to tell me I'll be on my way. I've got better things to do."

"You can't -" the Four-eyes began, but Logan's hands were faster. In the blink of an eye he had ripped the gun from the kid's hands and sliced into three neat pieces.

"I'll do whatever I want."

In a flash the kid had swiped Logan's feet from beneath him, flipping him onto his back and pressing an arm to his throat.

"I can't allow you to leave."

"I don't have time for this!" he threw the kid off and stormed out of the room, kicking splintered boards and bricks out of the way. As much as all this disturbed him- the monster, the weird kids with swords and guns and little green creatures - he couldn't get involved, not that anyone wanted him here anyway. He wasn't keen on biting any more bullets, and he still had to find Yukio.

"Oi! Wait!"

He turned to see the mutant kid running after him, eyes shining eagerly. With a long-suffering sigh, Logan stopped.

"What do you want?"

"You said you're human, but you healed...and your claws...are you really like me?"

Despite his annoyance, Logan felt a pang of sympathy. He didn't know this kid's story, but apparently this kid had never met another mutant. Growing up different than everyone else, not understanding why he was like that...was that even possible? In this modern age where mutants had been universally accepted as citizens with rights like any other person? But looking into the kid's eyes, Logan saw a lonely despair he recognized whenever he looked in a mirror.

"Yeah, kid. I'm like you," he looked back and saw Four-eyes approaching with a grim expression.

"But tell your hot-shot friend to back off or next time it won't just be his gun."

The kid laughed, "That's my brother Yukio. He's a little too serious for his own good."

"Brothers, huh? I wouldn't have guessed." But Logan knew more than anyone just how different two brothers could be.

Yukio adjusted his glasses, "I'm appropriately cautious. Thank you for disposing of that demon, but we still need to hold you for questioning."

"Who needs to question me? You're just a kid!"

"That would be me. Mr. Okumura, good job. But I think you can leave your gun where it is. This man poses no threat to us."

Logan wasn't even surprised when the man in the extravagant clown costume appeared from thin air, bowing low and doffing his ridiculous top hat.

"My name is Mephisto Pheles, and I'm the principal of this school."

"Nice to meet ya. Could you show me the way out of this madhouse?"

"All in good time, Wolverine."


End file.
